Personal best: for runners, can be soft soil on the body

Hirofumi Tanaka, an exercise physiologist at the University of Texas at Austin, bristles, when he carved out of the grass sees dirt paths along cobbled cycling or routes running. The paths are created by runners, who think they soft ground protects against injury.

Dr. Tanaka, a runner once tried it yourself. He was primarily of an knee injury, and an orthopedic surgeon told him to stay away from hard surfaces such as asphalt roads, and instead run on softer surfaces such as grass or dirt. So he ran on a dirt path that an asphalt cycle path had beaten runner in the grass together.

The result? "I twisted my ankle and tightened my injury while running on the soft, irregular surface," he said.

In the aftermath of his accident, Dr. Tanaka, he said not could find no scientific evidence, a softer surface is beneficial for runners, other experts asked he could. In fact, said it also make sense to think that runners on soft surfaces that are hard to smooth, are often irregular, rather get violated it.

His experience makes me wonder. Is there a good reason why many runners think a soft surface is smooth at their feet and limbs? Or this is another example for a common errors, we all trust, what seems like common sense and never make the questions whether the conventional wisdom is correct?

Perhaps, a runner who is like me, the ground with their forefoot instead of their heel, may risk more injuries on soft ground. Every time I push off on a soft surface, winding I finally mean foot.

Exercise researchers say there is no strict gold-standard studies where large numbers of people on soft or hard surfaces lead assigned to have been, then followed compare injury rates.

It is a good reason, said Stuart j. warden, Director of the Indiana Center for translational musculoskeletal research at Indiana University. It's too hard to recruit large numbers of people ready, area, or a different one for their runs after the random will be assigned to.

"I think that is reason why still people not answered this question, that it is not a simple question to answer," said Dr. warden.

As Dr. Willem van Mechelen, head of health at work at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam to published studies to run of injuries and how she sought to prevent, closed it, also, that there was no good studies that directly support on soft ground running. "Clearly seem not relating to ongoing injuries, age, sex, body mass index, with hills, running on hard surfaces, participation in other sports, the time of the year and the time of the day," concluded Dr. van Mechelen.

So what is on? It seems obvious that the forces on your legs and feet are different, depending on whether you on soft packed dirt or hard concrete running. Why not injury rates are affected?

A response that accept many comes from studies that indirectly addresses the issue. Some people ran out of them on plates, which measured the force, with which they hit the ground. Instead of vary the hardness of the soil, the researchers varies the damping of the shoes. More attenuation applied on soft ground running.

Time and time again studies like this found that the body automatically adjusts to different surfaces - at least, as imitated by cushioning in shoes - to keep forces constantly, when foot plate.

This statement makes sense, said Dr. warden. If you jump from one table to the floor, you automatically bend your knees when you land. If you jump on a trampoline, you can keep your knee stiff when you land. Something similar happens when you run on different surfaces.

"If you run on a hard surface, your body takes its rigidity," said Dr. warden. "Their knees and hips flex more." "The legs stiffen on a soft surface." Run on a soft surface "is another activity in fact," he said.

But not really forces within the body measure these studies, Dr. van Mechelen found. Instead, she used bio-mechanical modeling to estimate those forces.

"It models, so that God knows whether it is true," said Dr. van Mechelen. "But, it seems far-fetched to me."

Dr. Warden told some people faster than others run adjust surfaces, and he advised that all want, to change to a hard surface from a soft or vice versa, number safely and gradually make the change.

Change your running surface, said Dr. warden, "is a lot of how to increase your mileage." change your shoes or a different aspect of your training program abrupt changes can be risky.

But without evidence, that softer surfaces prevent injuries, there is no reason on soft ground run, if you, like Dr. warden and said other experts. Dr. van Mechelen tells a few comfortable shoes to runners and run on what they prefer.

Dr. van Mechelen, a runner himself, says that his favorite surface is asphalt. Mine is to.

My coach, Tom Fleming, never proposed soft surfaces and never thought it prevents that injury. And he said: there is a good reason to run on asphalt, at least if you want to compete.

"Are the most road-race on hard surfaces," he told me. "Let us as they get."

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